In a process of fabricating a semiconductor device, a probe apparatus is used to perform an electrical inspection on a semiconductor device which is formed on a semiconductor wafer. Such a probe apparatus uses a probe card including a plurality of probes which are brought into contact with electrode pads formed on the semiconductor wafer.
In a conventional probe apparatus, an electrical conduction between each of the probes of the probe card and each of electrodes of the semiconductor device to be measured which is formed on the semiconductor wafer is established. Subsequently, the electrical inspection of the semiconductor device to be measured is performed by supplying an inspection signal provided from a tester to the semiconductor device to be measured through each of the probes, and measuring a signal received from the semiconductor device to be measured.
As described above, the conventional probe apparatus moves the wafer chuck with respect to the fixed probe card so that each of the electrodes of the semiconductor device to be measured, which is formed on the semiconductor wafer mounted on the wafer chuck, is brought into contact with a corresponding probe of the fixed probe card.
In recent years, a diameter of the semiconductor wafer has been increased, for example, from 300 mm to 450 mm. As such, the probe apparatus for measuring the semiconductor wafer having such a large diameter inevitably needs to increase or adjust its wafer inspection range for accommodating the larger wafers. Therefore, a probe apparatus having capabilities to restrain the range of movement to conserve the real estate of the wafer inspection region is required.